The Legend of the North

Chapter 15

Announcement

Thank you for reading "The Legend of the North". This book is fully published on Amazon (under the same name), it would be very helpful if you buy the book to support me.

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The sound of snow being compressed wakes Ezer, who opens his eyes sharply. For a moment he thinks it's Lia, but the size, shape and especially the black eyes, dark as the night that surrounded him, completely eliminates sleep and without hesitation he takes his bow, along with his backpack, and runs with all his might in the opposite direction.

The huge white bear takes its time and sniffs the air, watches Ezer run and only when he is almost out of sight, begins to chase him at a pace that for him was no more than a light jog, but clearly outpaced his prey.

The trees are left behind as Ezer descends a slight slope, he looks behind him and sees a huge white mass running towards him. Panicking at the distance shrinking every second, Ezer throws his backpack aside and only keeps the bow along with the quiver and the few arrows he had besides the dagger.

He manages to slightly increase his speed thanks to this, but luck and mother nature were not in his favor today, a cliff cuts off his escape and stops him in his tracks.

At the edge and with no way out, Ezer looks into the dark abyss without being able to discern the bottom. At the moment when the desperation and adrenaline reaches the climax, a smile appears on his face and he begins to laugh.

Not knowing if he's gone insane or this was just another facet of fear, Ezer turns around and takes aim with his bow. It is not the first time he has faced a beast, but it is the first time he has done it alone, now he knows the true help that the pack provided him.

He takes a deep breath trying to slow down his agitation and, 150 meters away between him and the bear, releases his first arrow. He misses, just like at 100 meters, at 50 meters when his legs begin to shake, he releases another arrow with a single thought.

"Hit the target."

Repeat the same word over and over again in the seconds that the projectile was traveling to its destination. At that moment, as if answering his prayers, a small and almost invisible flow surrounds the arrow, accelerating its rotation, correcting its course and causing it to embed itself directly in the white bear's eye.

With his vision blocked and in excruciating pain, the bear loses his balance, lightly hitting a tree and falling forward. Ezer barely has time to throw himself to the side when a white mass reflecting the moonlight rolls and falls into the abyss in the same place where he was a moment ago.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ezer listens to the bear's last cries as it falls into the abyss. However, the screams get louder instead of going away and, before he can even notice it, a strong impact shakes the entire cliff, destroying it including the part where Ezer was standing.

Magic, the ability to influence nature without having to make physical contact. Magic that Ezer unconsciously used on his arrow and also the one the bear used to destroy the cliff in a desperate attempt for revenge.

The world slows down for Ezer, who feels every bump and cut on his body as he falls into the darkness and begins to roll, unable to stop. The earth, rocks, branches all impacted his body, hurting him and without slowing down, a brutal pain assaults his shoulder after hitting what he believes was perhaps a stone.

His suffering ends in the worst way when his back hits a tree and bends in the shape of a C. The pain was so excruciating that he lost consciousness instantly, and yet he continued to fall for a few more meters before finally stopping.

His body no longer resembled that of a person, with bloody cuts, bruises, and his back in a strange position which made him look like a malformed and unwanted creature, left aside so that he would not "suffer" and die in peace.

The hours pass and there is only silence in the surroundings, Ezer's breathing is the only thing that breaks the silence at irregular intervals.

As the sun begins to warm the land, blue eyes stare at Ezer's motionless body.

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The landscape was blurred as the car moved down the road, sitting in the back, watching the two people in front of him. However, he cannot see their faces and neither can he see his own reflected in the clear glass. At some point, the landscape turns to darkness and it seems that time has stopped, he can't see anything and the light is fading every second. But before everything goes black, a smile and eyes full of love look at him, it seems that she is about to say something, although the darkness advances and blocks all vision.

A second later, Ezer wakes up.

All he could see were boards and clothes strewn across the floor of what appeared to be a log cabin. For some reason he couldn't see with his left eye and he couldn't move his right arm either, but the strangest thing was that he didn't remember anything about the dream he just had. His name, who he was, his parents, home, what happened to him, he doesn't remember anything.

Ezer doesn't have the strength to panic, his field of vision shrinks as sleep takes over his consciousness. He hears a door open and the footsteps of a person, but doesn't care because at that moment he falls asleep.

He wakes up again after an indefinite time and then falls asleep again, and so on continuously between fever and cold sweats.

The sun beating down on his body and the breeze passing through a slight opening in the window behind him do the same, he had finally stayed awake for more than five minutes and now his mind was clear enough to reorganize his thoughts and remember who he was.

He turns his head slightly to the center of the room and sees a seated man carving a piece of wood continuously and with a skill that showed he was no beginner. Black hair as well as his beard and a physical build worthy of someone who lives alone in the woods as far away as this one.

"You finally stopped babbling nonsense. You had a very high fever, I thought you wouldn't make it, Niva must love you very much." Without taking his eyes off his work, he speaks to Ezer.

"Wh-wha... wha..." Trying to speak, Ezer feels his mouth dry as if he had eaten sand.

"There's water on the table next to you. And don't use your right hand, it's not broken but probably cracked, so I immobilized it just in case."

Stretching out his left hand, Ezer leans to the side feeling a sharp, deep pain in his back that travels to the tips of his toes, after a while, the pain was replaced by numbness.